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Israel Justus Clark (1821-1905)
}} Biography Two Utah Migrations Israel Justus Clark joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints March 9, 1844 at Osian, Allegany County, New York at the age of 23, he came to Utah with the John Smith Co., in 1848, settling in the Salt Lake Valley. He was ordained an Elder December 10, 1848. Israel, wife Elizabeth and two children, James and Jesse are listed in the database for the 1848 Brigham Young Pioneer Company. Other family members are listed in that database for 1850 travelers, including Charlotte and John Blanchard. He is listed in the pioneer records of the period as coming to Utah in 1848 but must have returned in 1849 or 1850 (many did return to get supplies, help others, pay off debts, etc.) because we find him and his family in October on the 1850 federal census (spelled Israel Clarke) in Pottawattamie Co.District 21 Iowa along with Louisa Eynon and her father James Eynon (Louisa's other two sisters have already married and Charlotte (Eynon) Blanchard and her new husband John Blanchard are about 5 houses away). The census is dated 3 Oct 1850 and James Eynon dies 6 Oct 1850 and is buried somewhere in Pottawattamie Co, Iowa. This leaves Louisa on her own in the barely settled wilds of frontier Iowa. Louisa and her family came from Wales in 1848 on the ship "Hartley" landing in New Orleans right in the middle of a cholera outbreak. Louisa's mother/stepmother died on the steamboat trip to St. Louis (along with 20-60 others) and is buried somewhere alongside the Mississippi R. Louisa along with Israel, Elizabeth and their family emigrated the 1,000 miles and about 100 day trip starting in June in Iowa, crossing the Missouri R, and traveling 6 days a week to arrive in Utah in mid to late September 1851. 2 There he settled (or perhaps resettled) in Farmington Utah and married Louisa Eynon as his second wife on 24 Nov 1851. On 24 Jan 1853 he marries Emily Jane Pearson as his third wife. 1855 Lemhi Settlement Israel Justice was truly a pioneer, an outstanding colonizer and builder, a great missionary to the Lamanite assisting in the settling of Fort Lemhi in the Salmon River country of Idaho in the early 50's. He was an Indian interpreter and an Indian War veteran. He worked with the Nez Perce, Blackfoot and the Shoshone of the Northwest. He was also great friends of the Indians of the Northern Utah and Utes of the Uintah Reservations. He could speak their language perfectly. In 1855 Isarel is assigned by Brigham Young (1801-1877) to go to unsettled Lemhi, Idaho, the middle of Indian country, and set up a mission and town there. 3 Israel leaves with a group of other men leaving his three wives to survive as best they can on his farm in Farmington. 4 Israel works hard and learns the Indian language there and is making arrangements to sell his farm in Farmington and move his families there. In 1856 he takes his third wife Emily and returns to Lemhi to get started on his new home. In 1857 the Indians hear rumors of the "Utah War" and an army being sent to Utah to "wipe out" the Mormons. The Indians become belligerent and attack the Lemhi settlement killing several people. The remaining people receive orders to evacuate the settlement and return to Utah. On the return trip, Emily gives birth to Harriett Louise Clark in the back of a wagon somewhere on the snow and mud covered road back to Utah in the wilds of Idaho. you thought you were tough? After the threatened "war" is settled in 1858 (fortunately without any serious fighting) the settlers never return to Lemhi. The first permanent pioneer settlement in Idaho is not so permanent. Founder of Clarkston UT He was some of the original pioneers of Logan, Utah, camping on the Little Logan River in 1859. They moved to Clarkston, Utah in 1867 and was the first bishop of this ward, Clarkston was named in his honor. They returned to Logan in 1871. He was called on a second mission October 11, 1875, laboring with the Lamanites in the vicinity in Corrinne, Utah, then a part of an Indian Reservation. Ashley Valley Pioneer He came to Ashley Valley in the Fall of 1877 with his family, food and implements over the road from Heber that was little more than a trail crossing Daniels Creek many times. They entered Ashley Valley through the gap at the west. He and his sons were soon in the mountains getting logs and poles for house and fences on their homestead southeast of Vernal. More and more people were coming to the valley and Indians came too. In the Fall of 1879 after the Meeker Massacre, his friends, the three chiefs of the Uintas came in the night and told him to get his people into the fort for safety. This was done at once. Many times he fed his Indian friends at their table and kept them while they jerked their meat and tanned their hides. When Uintah Stake was organized in 1886, he was chosen as the first high councilman. On May the 29th, 1905 he was ordained a patriarch, he was indeed a patriarch at heart and looked much like a prophet. Marriage and Family Israel Justus Clark married three wives Elizabeth Angeline Tuttle in NY in 1836, Louisa Eynon in Salt Lake City, UT in 1851 and Emily Jane Pearson in Salt Lake City, UT in 1853. He had about 33 children, including four sets of twins, with the three wives listed here. 1st Marriage: Elizabeth Tuttle 2nd Marriage: Louisa Eyron 3rd Marriage: Emily Pearson Vital Records Vernal Gravestone * Location : Vernal Memorial Park Plot Vernal_BH63.00_L3_S2 References * #20372774 * Israel Clark - GENI * Mormon Pioneers